Posted on 12 March 2019 by The Hartford Guardian

HARTFORD — In his third state of the city address on Monday, Mayor Luke Bronin touted Hartford as a city on the path to fiscal health after having averted a financial crisis.

Bronin said the city was fiscally
sound and was attracting new businesses such as Insurtech, Stanley Black &
Decker, MakerspaceCT and ThinkSynergy. Thanks in part to the state’s five-year
plan that averted the city from filing bankruptcy last year. The state agreed
to pay off the city’s $550 million debt.

The city was indeed at a crossroads
and the mayor said he and his team made a plan and stuck with it.

“It’s easy to forget just how
dangerous that crisis was,” Bronin said to the city council and others in City
Hall. “It was not clear then that there was any path other than bankruptcy that
would allow our city to avoid a catastrophic collapse of services.”

Bronin, who is seeking a second
term in office, said the city now has enough money set aside for capital
investments and to build on the city’s reserves.

But there is much more work to
do.

The mayor outlined the need to
increase the number of black and Hispanic police officers and fire fighters in
the city, tackle youth homelessness, chronic absenteeism in the school district
and invest more in Hartford neighborhoods.

The city recently hired more than
100 police officers and about half of those hired are black and Hispanic. Additionally,
about 125 firefighters were hired and two-thirds are black and Hispanic,
officials said.

The city has also received a
grant to help reduce youth homelessness.
The city has partnered with several area organizations and has reduced
chronic homelessness by 70 percent since 2015, Bronin said.

Almost 50 percent of Hartford
students are considered chronically absent or on the brink of being labeled
chronically absent. The city has partnered with a national organization to
reengage students to lower the absenteeism rate.

“Issues like that can’t be solved
inside the walls of our schools alone,” Bronin said.

There are also signs of
development and other investments that dot the city’s landscape. Projects that
were stalled are now on track again, such as the Albany Avenue Streetscapes,
Westbrook Village and Weaver High School in the North End.

The Southend has a new library
branch and Mutual Housing is turning blighted properties into an island of
affordable housing.

Progress is evident, he said.

“Anyone who says that
neighborhood economic development hasn’t been a priority just isn’t paying
attention, or isn’t telling the truth,” Bronin said.

The first-term mayor ended his
30-minute speech by urging all residents and business owners to take ownership
of the city and fight for its progress.

“We’re a city that fights when
we’re down, and we fight for those who are down,” Bronin said. “We’re a city
that stands together. We are the strong heart of our region, and the Capital of
this great State.”